The pro-life ministry 40 Days for Life passed a major milestone in 2024 by saving its 25,000th baby from an abortion -- a benchmark its CEO is heralding as a hopeful sign for the future.
Launched in 2004, 40 Days for Life mobilizes volunteers around the world who hold peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities as they pray and fast with the goal of changing hearts and minds.
The campaign saved its 25,000th baby in 2024 and now stands at 25,308 lives saved all-time. It’s also seen 161 abortion clinics close, and 268 abortion workers quit.
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Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told Pregnancy Help News that the campaign has only grown stronger since 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Once the Supreme Court sent abortion back to the states, the demand for 40 Days for Life skyrocketed,” Carney said.
The post-Roe world, Carney explained, led to an increase in interest to become 40 Days for Life leaders and volunteers.
“[Demand] was already high but it really reached levels of people basically saying they always thought about leading a 40 Days for Life campaign in their town, or bringing it to their town, but the overturning of Roe just propelled them that, ‘Hey, if I close my local abortion facility, there's no federal government to stop me from doing that -- this is a state issue,’” he said.
“And so, the demand for 40 Days really hit an all-time high in 2022,” Carney said, “and then it went up in 2023 and then it went even further in 2024.”
Contrary to conventional wisdom, 40 Days for Life’s presence is strongest in states with liberal abortion laws.
“We are the most effective and have the largest presence in very pro-abortion states where abortion is celebrated. And so it makes sense that our demand went up, but I still think it was surprising to us, because we lost a lot of cities for good reason, right?” he said, referencing pro-life states where abortion clinics closed in the wake of Roe’s demise. “Their abortion facilities closed after the overturning of Roe, but we gained so many cities because of the high demand and the crazy response that we’ve seen from the pro-abortion movement since the fall of Roe.”
The ministry’s campaigns, he said, are most prominent in California.
“California is our largest state by far,” Carney said. “So, the more liberal the state, the more 40 Days for Life campaigns we have and the more impact we have.”
Volunteers within 40 Days for Life, Carney added, are diligently working to close abortion clinics in pro-abortion states. Lawmakers in left-leaning states such as California and New York can celebrate abortions and loosen their laws, he said, but “the reality is that's irrelevant if the abortion facility can't stay in business.”
“And that's what we focus on -- the bottom line of an abortion facility,” Carney said. “It's why we work so closely with the local pregnancy centers.”
“They can celebrate abortion all they want, but if enough women choose life, then the abortion facilities will close,” he said, “and that’s why we have 161 abortion facilities that have closed. Half of those are from blue states.”
Tweet This: They can celebrate abortion all they want, but if enough women choose life, then the abortion facilities will close.
The 40 Days for Life campaign has a presence in 1,700 cities and 65 countries around the world.
“We hold peaceful vigils,” Carney said. “We're law-abiding. And because it's peaceful, because it's prayerful, women choose life and workers convert. We've had 268 abortion facility workers who have had a conversion and left their jobs. Praise God for that.”
Carney believes the demand for 40 Days for Life campaigns is on the rise because the mission is so simple.
“Anybody can go out and pray -- it's local,” he explained. “You know, I can do something about abortion in my community. I can help the women who feel they have no other option than abortion in my community. So, it's a beautiful thing, and it's wonderful to see.”
In 2025, Carney has another goal -- to see Congress defund Planned Parenthood.
“Planned Parenthood gets a third of their income from the federal government,” he said. “Many Planned Parenthoods simply won't survive if they are defunded. If the federal government is telling us that abortion is no longer a federal issue, and it goes back to the states, then they don't need their nearly a billion dollars of funding from the federal government.
“It will be a massive step in ending abortion in our country,” Carney said.
